“On The Block”

New Art Auction Blog from WSJ.com



**Alert**


On The Block, The Wall Street Journal Online’s auction blog, focuses on the world’s major art auctions and offers insights on the business of art. For the next two weeks it will provide continuously updated news, images and analysis of the art auctions in New York. WSJ’s Kelly Crow and Lauren Schuker are reporting from the auction floors, providing updates on the scene, the players and the numbers. Posts include:

Sotheby’s Sluggish Sale: A Fluke or a Falling Market? Following last night’s disappointing $269 million sale, the art world will be whispering today about whether the night was a fluke or a sign of decline setting in after four years of record art prices.

Inside Sotheby’s: What does it feel like to attend a major art auction? Sotheby’s holds 111 sales a year in its Manhattan headquarters, but the evening auctions — like the Impressionist and modern art one Wednesday night — lure the shiniest group of top collectors, movie stars, curators and dealers, who are all ready to duke it out for the world’s priciest artworks. Click around in an interactive graphic to see who showed up and where they were seated.

From the Eyes of the Art Dealer: For art dealers, much of preparing for the auctions is sifting through the phone-book sized catalogues — which some say are full of “filler” — to find the star lots. On The Block spoke with two well-known dealers to see what they were looking for.

On The Block is offered for free at http://blogs.wsj.com/ontheblock and includes links to slideshows, interactive graphics and polls for readers to vote for their favorite pieces.

For more information or to speak to Kelly or Laura, please contact me at (212) 416-4710 or angela.martin@dowjones.com.

Angela Martin

Public Relations

Dow Jones & Company

200 Liberty Street

9th Floor

New York, NY 10281

(212) 416-4710 - Office